In general, various techniques have been proposed to prevent damage to freight or cargo due to rough handling and/or road conditions. Rough handling is generally related to slack action within a vehicle transporting freight, usually due to poor vehicle handling or by driving the vehicle at excessive speeds. Rough handling and irregularities along the transport route has created additional expenses by forcing shippers and customers to make considerable expenditures on blocking, bracing, and otherwise attempting to cushion the freight being transported. Accordingly, it has become necessary to track instances of rough cargo handling and irregular transport routes to take appropriate measures to protect the cargo.
One prior technique has proposed to monitor the position of the vehicle itself for collecting and storing information during predetermined events. This prior technique, however, does not address the problem of damage occurring to cargo during a transport route. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,206 to Scribner et al. In this system only the location of the vehicle is generally determined and recorded during the occurrence of events detected by sensors which respond to such an occurrence. The system is associated with navigational units to receive positional information from a navigation system. The location of the vehicle is stored in a data collector on the vehicle. The date and time of the events may also be stored along with the positional information. The position is determined by means of a navigation system such as GPS or LORAN. The stored information is later transported to an information delivery point and downloaded to a data processing system. Here the information is analyzed to determine the exact location and time of the occurrence of the events, such as the closure of a passenger door of a taxi or bus, or the pickup of waste by a truck.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3 of Scribner et al., a truck 10 is equipped with a lift arm sensor 18 and rear door sensor 24 which are coupled electrically to a navigational system such as a GPS type system. The truck also has a passive radio transmitter in the form of tag 30 mounted on it. One such tag is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,026 issued to the same inventors. The purpose of this transmitter is to transmit the truck identification number to a base data receiver/computer unit 32 which may be located at the depot where the truck is returned and housed. When the truck leaves the depot, an RF signal from the receiver/computer unit 32 causes the tag 30 to transmit the truck identification to the receiver/computer 32. The receiver/computer records the time, date and truck identification number. On returning to the depot the tag 30 again transmits the truck identification number to the data receiver/computer unit 32. The information contained in the data collector 28 may then be downloaded into the base receiver unit 32. This information may consist of (1) the identification number of the truck, (2) the day, time, latitude and longitude of each occurrence of the lift arm actuating its sensor, and (3) the day, time, latitude and longitude of each occurrence of actuation of the rear door sensor. However, Scribner et al. does not recognize, address or relate to the problem of damage caused to cargo during a transport route.
Prior techniques have also considered the effect of vehicle acceleration on the cargo for detecting cargo impact. U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,564 to Tennes et al. describes an impact detection apparatus for measuring and recording acceleration or other physical quantities experienced by easily damaged items of commerce such as fruit, or electronic computers. A triaxial accelerometer or other suitable sensor produces signals which are stored in a memory along with the times of the events which trigger the accelerometer. This provides an event-time history which later may be read from the memory for analysis after the handling or transportation is completed.
Control of the acceleration to which cargo carrying vehicles are subjected can be exerted is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,605 to Burns et al. Burns et al. describes a vehicle positioning system using a plurality of inputs such as a GPS receiver, wheel tachometer, O.S. circuits, transponders and manual inputs from locomotive engineers.
Systems exist for continuously establishing and indicating the location of vehicles such as cars, trucks and boats. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,208 to Marinelli et al., which is directed primarily towards theft prevention. In this system a master tracking station receives and stores signals representative of the object identification and the location of the object, and may provide a visual indication of the object identification code and object location. Only vehicle location is detected.
The occurrence of events along a transport route is mapped out in U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,477 to Austill et al. However, this system does not include the use of a transmitter, from which information is downloaded into a central controller via a communication system. Nor is location information fed into a sensing module on the vehicle. Rather, the event location is determined by sensing and recording the degree and direction of track curvature for the rails on which the vehicle is travelling.
One technique has recognized the need to map the occurrence of predetermined conditions along a transport route travelled by a mobile sensing station. The mobile sensing station is connected to a central controller via a communication system. The mobile sensing station continuously senses for the occurrence of the predetermined conditions along the transport route. When these conditions are detected, data regarding these conditions are stored, as well as time and date data corresponding to the subject occurrences. Positional data are also received and correlated with the occurrence. The mobile sensing station is then triggered to transmit the correlated data over the communication system to a central controller. The correlated data are arranged so that a map of the transport route can be displayed, showing the locations of the predetermined conditions for future or current reference and to avoid such predetermined conditions. This technique is disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/022,037 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,597 entitled "System for Mapping Occurrences of Predetermined Conditions in a Transport Route" to James Christopher Buck and assigned to American Mobile Satellite Corporation, incorporated herein by reference.
However, none of the aforementioned systems have considered the problem of adverse environmental and external conditions experienced by a mobile communicator used in vehicles for receiving and transmitting information from, for example, a central control point, other vehicles or land based stations via a satellite system. Accordingly, it has been discovered that these mobile communicators are subjected to unusually adverse conditions which result from these environmental or external forces or sources. It has further been discovered that it is beneficial to be informed of these types of adverse conditions in a real-time like manner, thereby providing the ability to correct or avoid such adverse conditions before the mobile communicator can no longer operate.
It has also been discovered that, at times, these adverse external conditions result from the improper handling of the mobile communicator operator. It has been discovered that these mobile communicators need to be extra durable to resist these types of adverse external conditions. Accordingly, specialized handling and safety features have been determined to be necessary.
It has also been discovered that these mobile communicators are experiencing failures due to poor and improper assembly of parts embedded within the mobile communicator.
It has further been discovered that these mobile communicators are experiencing adverse conditions resulting, in part, in the inability to properly removably secure the mobile communicator when in use.
It has further been discovered that these mobile communicators are experiencing adverse conditions resulting, in part, from the complicated or elaborate wiring which is necessary for the operation of the mobile communicator.